15 posts in this topic

Hum 6,377

Anyone with an email account has no doubt waded through spam, a.k.a. junk mail, in their inbox -- perhaps in the form of a ?phishing? scam that tries to get you to reveal personal information.

You know, the ones that look like authentic messages from your bank, credit card company or favorite online retailer. They usually have familiar logos and wording, but are really a malicious attempt to lure you into giving out personal or financial information so the scammer can steal your identity for financial gain.

A typical phishing attempt looks something like this: "We suspect an unauthorized transaction on your account. To ensure that your account is not compromised, immediately click the link below to confirm your identity."

They often have a sense of urgency, and often pretend they're acting in your interest.

You never want to click on the link in these emails because you're one step away from voluntarily giving up personal information, plus some of these sites contain malware that could infect your computer.

Never reply to the sender, either, because all you're doing is confirming your email address is valid, which invites more phishing attempts and spammed messages.

Phishing emails are often sent to millions of addresses at the same time, in the hopes a few bite. Scam artists don't know if you're really getting these emails, but writing back proves you did.

Jut tap delete whenever you get a suspicious email like this. Your bank or Internet Service Provider (ISP) will never ask you to confirm sensitive information like this. You could also forward the entire email to the financial institution or ISP its spoofing or send it to the authorities, but I wouldn't get your hopes up. Tech-savvy scammers are often hard to track down and many of these emails originate from overseas.

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Nick H. 6,806

Never reply to the sender, either, because all you're doing is confirming your email address is valid, which invites more phishing attempts and spammed messages.

Funny. Despite the fact that I know my email address (well, my junk one) can be found all over online, I still class the above as "common sense." I also wouldn't have the patience to deal with someone I know is trying to scam me. I've done it once in real life, that was enough.

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Astra.Xtreme 1,732

Expanding a little further on this, I've heard that if you try to "unsubscribe" from some spam emails, it simply confirms you're real and the problem will get worse. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but I wouldn't be surprised.

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LaP 1,512

Expanding a little further on this, I've heard that if you try to "unsubscribe" from some spam emails, it simply confirms you're real and the problem will get worse. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but I wouldn't be surprised.

The best is to flag the email as spam and let it die in the spam folder.

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theyarecomingforyou 8,870

Expanding a little further on this, I've heard that if you try to "unsubscribe" from some spam emails, it simply confirms you're real and the problem will get worse. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but I wouldn't be surprised.

If it's from a reputable site that you signed up to then the unsubscribe feature works exactly as advertised, as I've unsubscribed from numerous emails and barely get any spam at all. Obviously you wouldn't do that if the email doesn't address you by name and it's from a company / website you don't recognise.

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Marshall 13,953

Funny. Despite the fact that I know my email address (well, my junk one) can be found all over online, I still class the above as "common sense." I also wouldn't have the patience to deal with someone I know is trying to scam me. I've done it once in real life, that was enough.

^This

It is common sense among tech people, but the general public, not so much. Any time you click on a link or attempt to unsubscribe from such emails you're only confirming that the email address is indeed legitimate.

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Rohdekill 706

Expanding a little further on this, I've heard that if you try to "unsubscribe" from some spam emails, it simply confirms you're real and the problem will get worse. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but I wouldn't be surprised.

And expanding even more... never set an out of office auto reply on, either. It too, tells them it is an active email account.